‘Hotel Rwanda’ film reminds world to stand up against genocide

Part rebuke and part prayer, it is a plea that the atrocities committed against Jews and others during World War II never happen again.

Sixty years after the Nazi death camps were opened and the world learned just how inhumane humans can really be to one another, the butchery and bloodshed continue. Right now, playing on movie screens across the country is a painful reminder of how we have not applied the lessons we learned from the Holocaust.

"Hotel Rwanda" has gained much publicity in recent weeks. It has been nominated for three Academy Awards: one for best actor, one for best supporting actress and one for best screenplay. It is sadly telling that the glitz and glamour of possibly winning Hollywood’s Oscar statuette is gaining more attention for the movie than the story — and message — it tells.

The movie, part drama and part documentary, is a based-on-fact retelling of one man’s heroic, and sometimes dangerous, decision to stand up to brutal tyranny and defend those targeted for extermination.

Don Cheadle stars as Paul Rusesabagina, manager of the Mille Colines hotel in the Rwandan capital of Kigali during the 1994 revolt and murderous rampage by that country’s Hutu militia.

The rampage began in April 1994, when the militia shot down a plane carrying the president of Rwanda and the president of Burundi. Both leaders were killed. In the ensuing 100 days, Hutu renegades started a barbarous campaign, hunting, torturing, forcibly raping and murdering more than 800,000 Tutsis and their Hutu sympathizers.

As recounted in "Hotel Rwanda," Rusesabagina hid nearly 1,200 Tutsi refugees and Hutu moderates, risking his life and his family’s safety in the process. The film describes his efforts to house and feed these displaced persons while bribing, cajoling and bartering with terrorist rebels.

Indeed, the film offers some images that are disturbing: rampant torture and murder; nuns praying the rosary as they try to escape the Hutus; children from a Catholic orphanage are slaughtered; a bumpy ride in a vehicle turns out to be a trip not over a road in disrepair, but a road strewn with hundreds of butchered men, women and children; foreigners are allowed to leave Rwanda with their pets, but they cannot bring Rwandans with them.

Sadly, the events were almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. Indeed, as disturbing as the movie’s portrayal of the genocide is, the impact is deepened by the disinterest shown by the United Nations, France and Belgium. The United States, to a lesser extent, is also criticized for its inaction.

During World War II, an argument could be made that relaying news was slow and unreliable. Perhaps — and this is a very weak argument — the rest of the world did not know the extent of the evil being carried out in the death camps because mass communication was not as advanced as it is now.

But the atrocities in Rwanda — the likes of which the world has not seen since the barbarism of the Nazis 50 years earlier — took place during a time of rapid mass communication and around-the-clock news. The world knew; it just looked away this time.

In "Hotel Rwanda," Rusesabagina asks a BBC news cameraman why the heart-wrenching images he is transmitting to the rest of the world have not fostered aid, assistance (or any other reaction) from those who see the footage. The cameraman’s answer is sad and chilling: "They will watch it on TV, say ‘That’s terrible,’ and then go right on eating their dinner."

Rusesabagina is an ordinary husband and father who is called to summon incredible courage in an effort to save the defenseless and the vulnerable. Unfortunately, there are not too many Rusesabaginas in the world. And the genocide of 60 years ago and 10 years ago continues.

Right now, the Red Cross is reporting that the violence in the Darfur region of western Sudan is just such a tragedy and humanitarian crisis. In Darfur, a government-backed Arab militia called Janjaweed has waged a campaign to banish or, in many cases, totally eliminate indigenous African tribal farmers.

The Red Cross has reported that some total villages in the region have been razed, the tribes’ food and water supplies are being contaminated, men and boys are being murdered and women and girls are regularly raped. CNN reported that the Sudanese government has supported the Janjaweed by conducting aerial bombardments in the region, dropping explosives, barrels of nails, car chassis and old appliances to crush and destroy property. Thousands have died and more than 1 million people have been driven from their homes.

The bottom line is this: It is great that a movie that is well written and acted gets rewarded with a shot for the Oscar. But the movie is more than that. This is yet another plea, another reminder, that the slogan often used when referring to the Holocaust — "Never again!" — be a statement of purpose and not a question.